


Rowing One Way, Paddling In Other

by flandersmare



Series: Figrid February 2016 [2]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Courting Procedures, Courtship, Day 2, Established Relationship, F/M, Fígrid February, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-02
Updated: 2016-02-02
Packaged: 2018-05-17 22:25:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5887648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flandersmare/pseuds/flandersmare
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sigrid has been doing so much for Fili and for their courtship to honour the customs of his people. He asks what he can do in return.</p><p>Or</p><p>I know beads are so much fun, but I felt that was a little too easy for our boy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rowing One Way, Paddling In Other

‘A boat!?’

‘Yeah’.

Kili stared at his brother with a face the curdled mix of pity and horror. ‘Seriously?!’

Fili dropped his head into his hands and all but whimpered, ‘Yup’.

Kili just kept staring at the top of his brother’s head, mouth moving soundlessly for moment. ‘Oh Mahal, you’re in trouble,’ he finally croaked.

‘I know!’ Fili growled into is knees, his fists tightening on his braids. ‘I know! What am I going to do?’

‘Hey, you’re the one that started this conversation with the opening “I need to learn how to build a boat”, I think you’ve already got the hang of an objective!”

Fili listed sideways on his brother’s bed and muffled a desperate scream into the comforter, his hands still scrabbling against his own skull.

Giving his brother’s pathetic slumped figure a sympathetic look, Kili hurried to the side board of his chamber and fished his semi-secret stash of Dorwinion wine from under a pile of small clothes. By the time Kili had retrieved two tankards and returned to the bed, Fili had pulled himself upright with the use of the bed post he’d knocked his head against on the way down. He now gave the proffered drink a very sceptical look.

‘Hey, mead doesn’t keep well in here OK?’

‘I was more concerned of what Tauriel will say.’

Kili pursed his lips for a second in thought even as his ears reddened slightly at the mention of Tauriel. He nodded and resolutely poured two measures into the tankards. He handed the slightly less full of the two to his brother and flopped down onto the bed next to him. At Fili’s raised eyebrow Kili muttered ‘I need fortification, just hit me that if this is Sigrid’s people’s way, the Maker help me when I hear Tauriel’s’

Fili snorted and took a swig to hide his grin. Wasn’t bad for fruit he’d admit that much.

‘Right,’ Kili said smacking his lips after a long pull of wine, ‘why a boat?’

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

‘Here, let me.’

‘I’ve got it Fili, I’m alright.’

Fili gently took the pitcher of hot water out of Sigrid’s quaking hands and set it on the floor. ‘Come on now, take a seat.’ Fili held her wrists carefully as Sigrid settled into a chair besides her writing table, murmuring a quiet thank you to him. Fili chuckled softly, pressing a kiss into the curls at her temple. He turned his attention back to her hands again. They still shock even with the weight and pressure of the pitcher gone. Dropping to one knee besides her seat, Fili delicately started to unbutton the cuffs of her work blouse, turning the material up and over to her elbows. He looked up into her face as he secured the second cuff and was met with a soft smile and a pretty blush. He couldn’t help but grin roguishly, which got him a twitch of an eyebrow. He chuckled again and dropped a kiss to the delicate skin of her inner wrist. Her smile waivered when she went to swat at him for being ridiculous and a hiss of pain escaped from between her teeth.

Fili rolled to his feet again and retrieved the pitcher, bringing it to the writing table and shifting a large shallow bowl on it into position. He poured steaming water into the bowl and picked up the mortar and pestle, crushing the herbs thoroughly, just as Oin had instructed. They went into the water to diffuse and shortly after, hissing and winching at ever sensation, so did Sigrid’s tattered hands.

‘You alright?’ Fili asked and a small pained noise caught in the throat accompanied the nod she gave him. It seemed he couldn’t bring himself to stop kissing her. He stood behind her, his own hands settling on her shoulders to rub comforting circles as he dropped kisses into her hair. When the pain had dulled to throbbing aching, Sigrid releases a fortifying breath and tipped her head so the next descending kiss landed on her forehead. Fili raised his eyebrows at her upside-down face and she giggled as the next kiss landed on the tip of her nose.

‘Is this helping?’ he asked giving her shoulders one last squeeze before pulling up a stool to sit across from her.

‘It’s taking the edge off, yes.’ Sigrid drew her hands out of the bowl slowly, wincing again at the cooler air on the burns, cuts and abrasions that littered the now rather pink skin. She inspected her hands with distaste. ‘I think that’s long enough now.’ She fixed Fili with a quietly pleading look and her eyes flicked to the rest of the supplies Oin had sent along. ‘Could you help me? To dress them, please?’

And he had to kiss her properly then, because it still broke his heart a little that she was so reluctant to ask for help. Even now. He picked up the small basket and swapped it with the bowl of now tepid water. He took out a soft towel and began patting her hands dry as softy as he could. First the backs, taking care of her torn up knuckles and finger tips, and then the palms, circling slightly gleaming burns and blisters. His own broad thumb stroked gently over one angry cut, running the length of a finger. Sigrid’s hands hadn’t been soft in a long, long time. She’d had calluses and scars since before she knew what the words meant. But it grieved Fili to see her compassionate hands in such a state. ‘I’m so sorry, my Love.’

‘Hmm? What on earth for?’

Fili didn’t look up from her hands, only ran his thumb along the length of hers. ‘I’m sorry, for this.’ He looked up her and swallowed thickly. ‘I’m sorry you must injure yourself so to honour the traditions of my people.’

Sigrid chuckled, ‘I’m sorry I’m making such a meal of it! Your mother is being so patient with me.’ Fili opened his mouth to protest, but was shh’ed with a look. ‘Fili. I feel so privileged and lucky, to be seeing this part of your heritage. I’m learning so much about your people, and loving your culture all the more for understanding it. I am learning to make beads, Fili,’ and her smile was blinding in the soft fire light. ‘ _Marriage beads_ , Fili, for you. I feel that’s well worth a few broken nails.’ By the stars, Fili didn’t think he’d ever not want to kiss this woman.

The state of her hands broke them apart finally and, pink cheeked and breathless, Fili applied a soothing balm to the worst of her injuries, before wrapping both her hands in fine cotton bandages.

‘I still don’t think it’s fair though,’ he said as he fixed the last bandage around her wrist. ‘I mean you are doing all this, for me, and I feel like I haven’t raised a finger.’

Sigrid gave him a flat look as he started rolling her sleeve back down against the chill. ‘You asked for my hand Fili. In front of my father. Without consulting him first. I think you’ve seen enough peril in this courtship.’

Fili felt his blood run a little cold at the mere recollection, he hadn’t been aware of that custom among the races of Men and he’d been caught up in the adrenalin of the moment and she had been smiling at him so beautiful and…. Well that had been a tense few days. He winced and nodded, ‘All the more reason for why I ought to endeavour myself to the courting ways of your people. I want to atone for that… mistake, and I think this would be a good way to do that.’ Excitement lit his eyes and he knelt at her feet, crossing his arms over her knees and resting his chin on hem, in lieu of taking her hands. ‘What do I need to do to court you in the way of your people? Do I need to go on some great quest? Slay a terrible beast? Compose some work of art for you? What must I do?’

‘You need to fight my Da for my hand and then if you survive justify your claim to my Ada.’

The blood drained from Fili’s face and he stared at her in horror, even as her shoulders shock with mirth.

‘Do not even jest woman,’ Fili growled, going all but boneless to the floor. He flopped forwards, burying his face in the lap shaking with supressed giggles. ‘My cruel love.’

‘You make it too easy,’ she said, her delight turning to indignant squawks as he dug his fingers into her sides in retribution.

Once they’d recovered themselves, Fili sat patiently at her knee, looking at her expectantly. ‘You really wish to know?’ When he nodded emphatically she just sighed. ‘We don’t have anything quiet as hallowed as your customs, dear heart. Usually the man would ask the woman in private. He’d talk to her parents before to make his intentions known and for them to give their blessing. Then they’d announce it as best they could at the next gathering.’

She looked down at him as if she could feel the shame crawling up out of his chest and onto his face.

‘I may have rushed those steps a little…’

‘You did just that, and in the wrong order if memory serves.’

Fili hid his face in the folds of her skirts again with a whine. Sigrid carefully dragged her fingers through his hair. Eventually he recovered from his bout of shame enough to lift his head and eventually his whole self, up and onto his stool once more. He ran an exasperated hand down his face, gripping his own chin before propping his elbow on his knee.

‘What else? What of the wedding itself?’

Sigrid shrugged. ‘We’ve had to make do in Lake Town. There may once have been customs in Dale, but on the Lake, there’s a hand-fasting on a favourable moon and a celebration that evening, as big or small as can be afforded. The couple wear the best clothes they can find.’

Fili’s forehead crinkled in confusion. ‘So no gifts? No indication of craft or means of support?’

Sigrid reached out and cupped his face with her hand, stoking his cheek bone with a thumb even as the cotton caught on his beard. ‘Coin was fleeting. Any means a lad or lass could bring to a marriage could be gone the next day. Or course, there were marriages where coin was the only thing brought to the union.’ Sigrid looked away briefly and Fili knew she was thinking of girls, friends, who had been drawn into matches with men years and years their senior at the presentation of payment. Fili covered her hand with his and she looked back up at him.

‘So nothing? Just the love you have for one another?’ Sounded so simple and beautiful. Just him and Sigrid. A hand-fasting. Her is a simple, pretty dress. Her family and his. Actually, her family meant Bard and Thranduil and his meant Kili and Thorin. Alright maybe just Bilbo and Tilda as witnesses. Or his mother. He’d have to speak to her tomorrow, see if they can call off the kingdom wide celebration and take two ponies to somewhere just for them.

‘Well,’ Sigrid said, snapping Fili away from his thoughts before he went too far down the route of planning their elopement, ‘just not to the same degrees your people go to is all. The woman would usually make a quilt or a throw… Something for the marriage bed.’ Fili grinned to see the shells of her ears, just visible through her curls, turn hot pink. ‘It tends to stay in the family as something of a treasure. The one Ma made lay on the bed all my life.’ A sad smile crept onto her face. ‘I didn’t think to grab it when we left the house.’

Fili took her hand away from his cheek, pressing a kiss to her bandaged palm. ‘I’m so sorry,’ he murmured into her hand, knowing what it is to have nothing to remember a lost parent by.

She gave a watery laugh. ‘I think your brother had managed to bleed all over it anyhow.’

Fili’s face screwed up and he knocked his forehead carefully against hers. ‘I am so, so sorry.’

‘It’s alright. I think I’ll make one before our wedding.’ She had to stop for a moment and grin breathlessly, as both of them did anytime it hit them all over again that this was happening. They were alive and in love and they would be married. ‘Yes, I’ll make one. I’ll have to pay Dori a visit soon.’ She lifted her free hand for inspection, wiggling her fingers experimentally. ‘Once these are up to handling a needle again of course.’

Fili caught the offending hand in his, bringing it to lips to press yet more kisses to finger tips and each wind of the bandage. Sigrid indulged him until he’d had his fill, when he looked back up at her, the light of the fire reflected in his cloudy blue eyes.

‘And the men?’ he pressed on. ‘What do the men bring to the home?’

‘Fili, you really do not need to.’

‘Sigrid, please. You are making such an effort for my people, may I hear of yours?’

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

‘A boat?’

Kili sat cross legged on the bed, still looking at his brother in a mix of pity and horror, but a slight shade of disgusted was creeping in at the edges.

‘Yes,’ Fili sighed. He was once again horizontal on the bed, one arm flung over his eyes and the bottle of wine now gripped in the other hand. He took another fortifying swig and hauled himself up to glare balefully at his brother. ‘What’s with the face?’

‘What face?’

‘You’re looking a bit green about the gills and you’ve only had half the measure.’

Kili wrinkled his nose. ‘You got lyrical on me.’

‘Sorry?’ Fili just blinked owlishly at him.

‘You went all waxing poetic about her. Again.’

‘Oh hark who’s talking! ‘Walks in starlight in another world’.’

‘I had been dying!’

‘Oh, and were you merely concussed at the lake shore? And every interaction with her since?’

‘We’re not that bad.’

Fili merely narrowed his eyes at his brother. ‘We make a pact. Right now.’ Kili raised an eyebrow at him in question. ‘If either of us get as bad as Thorin, the other must strike him down on the spot to spare him and the world the absurdity.’ Kili’s bark of laughter was joined by the clink of glass on pewter.

‘Deal.’ The pair of them took another swig of drink. ‘Well, she said you didn’t have to, didn’t she? She told you not to worry right?’

‘That she did,’ Fili muttered into the neck of the wine bottle between sips.

‘But you’re gonna anyway aren’t you?’ Kili’s voice was knowing and a little fed up.

‘She is putting so much into this marriage Kee,’ Fili keened, a wild-eyed expression prompting Kili to lean back slightly. ‘She’s come to live in the Mountain, she’s learning Khuzdul, she’s interacting with my family and my people of her own volition! You nut-jobs!’ Kili gently eased the wine bottle out of his brother’s rapidly slackening grip. His inspection of the bottle was interrupted with a sudden pressure on his shoulder and a sudden face full of blonde hair. ‘She’s leaving everything she knows behind’, Fili whined, completely ignoring the gagging and spluttering directly above his head. ‘She’s leaving her family and her people and the Lake and the countryside to come here. Her hands were bleeding Kee! I’ve had her bead ready and waiting tucked away since the week she said ‘yes’ and she’s bleeding over mine! Bleeding and glad of it!’ He tipped his head up to look imploringly up as his brother. ‘I have to be good enough for her, I have to do everything I can for her. I need to do this.’

Kili clamped down on the urge to point out that; Bard’s children pretty much considered Erebor as a second home, Sigrid would be at the very most a day’s walk from Dale and her family, she’d been the one to timidly ask if it would be alright, please Mister Balin, for her to take lessons in Khuzdul, that’s she’d been among the nurses tending to Thorin in the very aftermath of the Battle and had seen him at his lowest, that Thorin and Dis were both enormously fond of her, that Bilbo had shown her into his little private haven of a terrace garden and bid her come by anytime she wishes even if he isn’t there and that in short, everyone in the blinking Rhovanion Valley adored the woman, Kili included. If Fee cocked this up, he was in for a world of hurt and no mistake. But he said none of this. What he said instead was:

‘Are you sure she’s not just winding you up?’

**Author's Note:**

> OK, so this kinda got away from me. i'll be expanding it when there's time.


End file.
